To discuss the Fat Poets Speak series of books of poems, published by Pearlsong Press

Friday, October 18, 2013

Peaceful, nurturing

Do an exercise. See which words you associate with fat. I just did, and the words that came out were "peaceful" and "nurturing."

This in itself is of course a stereotype. When fat women march, whether in California or in Washington, DC, we are being anything but peaceful. We may not become violent physically, but our anger is almost palpable. This is what happens when fat women decide that enough is enough and decide to challenge the powers that be to stop thinking of us as numbers on a scale.

But I still like the words that I associate with fat because I associate them with my grandma, who was plump and loved me and cared deeply about me, as I did about her, but with a little too much selfishness because I was younger and heedless and in some ways thoughtless.. I wrote about her in Fat Poets Speak 1. I still like the concepts. Someone who is peaceful and nurturing isn't yelling at you to slim down, wear different clothes or become someone else entirely.

Sometimes I think that part of the "war" on fat people is also a war on "peacefulness" and "nurturing." After all, you can't compete and can't fight wars effectively if you are being nurtured a lot or nurturing a lot.